which was cut away to make room for it. An
ancient staircase, 15 ft. broad, led down from the temple hill into the
lower area of the broad pavement, from which access to the agora and the
Pirene was easy.

To the E. of the paved road and close up against the agora itself, only
at a much lower level, was found, buried under 35 ft. of earth, the
famous fountain Pirene, tallying exactly with the description of
Pausanias, as "a series of chambers that are like caves, and bearing a
facade of white marble." This Pirene originally had a two-storey facade
of Roman fashion made of limestone, but, before the time of Pausanias,
it had received a covering of marble which has now fallen off, but has
left traces of itself in the holes drilled into the limestone, in the
rough hacking away of the half columns, and in the numerous marble
fragments which lay in front of the facade. This was not, however, the
earliest form of Pirene. It was built up in front of a more simple Greek
fountain-structure which consisted of seven cross-walls placed under the
edge of the stratum forming the upper terrace. Six chambers were thus
formed which showed the chaste beauty of Greek workmanship, while the
stratum of native rock which covered them gave a touch of nature and
made them caves. The walls ended at the front in the form of an _anta_
delicately carved. On a parapet at the rear of each chamber a single
slender Ionic column between two _antae_ supported an Ionic entablature.
The stuccoed walls were striped horizontally and vertically with red on
a blue field, on which appear fishes swimming. The chambers were really
reservoirs, filled by the water which flowed along their backs.

We know nothing further about the Greek system, but in the Roman
adjustment the water was led from this series of cisterns into a large
rectangular basin which formed the centre of a quadrangle 50 ft. square.
In the N.E. corner is a hole through which it was drained, and at the N.
end a flight of five steps led down into it. Besides the four orifices
through which water flowed into it there were two other holes about 4
in. lower down to keep the basin from overflowing. Two uses of water are
mentioned by Pausanias, "The water," he says, "was sweet to drink," and
also good for tempering bronze. It seems clear then, that the basin was
at stated times used for the latter purpose, and was converted into a
tank. The bronze was plunged into the water in a red hot condition, and